A pair of chopsticks are commonly used as an eating utensil. Each chopstick has two ends, one end for picking up food that can be referred to as an eating portion and the other end for holding that can be referred to as a handling portion. Naturally, the end for picking up food, also the eating area of the chopsticks, may be covered with bits of food or sauce when in use. With traditional or conventional chopsticks, a majority of the time the eating area of the chopsticks will touch a surface when placed flat on a horizontal surface, such as a tabletop. To avoid contaminating the eating area of the chopsticks or staining a resting surface area (i.e. table), traditional or conventional chopsticks may require you to rest or lean the chopsticks on a chopstick rest. If there is no chopstick rest then one might rest a section of the chopsticks on another object to prevent the eating area from touching the surface. It may be inconvenient and wasteful to have a separate rest object to rest the chopsticks.
This present invention eliminates the need for a separate rest object with a elevated self-supporting feature. There have been proposals in the prior art for self-supporting chopsticks, however, the prior art proposals have several disadvantages, such as bulky apparatus, inability to separate the chopsticks, limitations on which side the chopstick must rest on, and the inability to instantaneously elevate the eating area of the chopstick above a resting surface to prevent it from touching the surface. For example, in CN 101099629, the chopsticks use a cavity filled with heavy liquid to counterbalance the weight creating the elevated effect. The solution described in said patent has a major disadvantage in that the elevation of the chopsticks is not immediate. A user may have to wait for the liquid substance to flow towards the end of the chopsticks before the eating portion of the chopsticks may gradually rise to elevate it above the desired resting surface area. In U.S. Pat. No. 8,870,254 a pair of tong like chopsticks are disclosed with a weighted self-standing bottom support plane positioned to maintain a distance above a surface without the requirement of a separate chopstick rest. However, in this invention, the chopsticks cannot be separated, it is bulky, and it can only be laid flat on its first and second bottom surfaces or bases. Thus, the eating area is only elevated if the base or holding area of the chopsticks is resting on its first or second bottom base.
This present invention overcomes all of the above shortcomings, because the handling portion of the chopstick is made of a heavier material compared to the eating portion of the chopstick, which counterbalances the chopstick to create an instant elevation of the eating portion when rested. Furthermore, the present invention allows the eating area of the chopsticks to be elevated and self-support above a resting surface regardless of which sides of the holding area the chopstick rest on.